Since the outbreak of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), what is commonly referred to as “Mad Cow Disease,” in Great Britain and elsewhere there has been an increased focus on tracing the location of cattle. Specifically, tracing of cattle to specific locations and/or tracing the comingling of cattle enables governmental agencies to establish the root of diseases like BSE or hoof-and-mouth disease. The systems that have been in place in the United States have been mostly voluntary and are woefully inadequate to trace cattle histories. However, because each species carries different diseases, there is not just a need to track cattle, but other livestock including poultry, swine, and so forth.
As a result of this increased push for identification and tracking systems, the livestock industry in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed the NAIS. The NAIS is a nationwide tracking system that requires anyone who owns or possess livestock must report locations and movements of the cattle and other livestock. To comply with the NAIS, each location where livestock may be present must have a premise identification number (PID), which is obtained through registration with a local, state, or federal governmental body. Additionally, each animal must have a unique identification number or electronic identification number (EID) associated with it. Each movement of an animal to a different premise must then be promptly (now, 48 hours) reported to a central database.
This type of tracking system can be very difficult and expensive to implement. Most notably, the cost and infrastructure requirements for the local component of this system could be prohibitive for most farmers, ranchers, or livestock managers. In Texas alone, 80% of the cattle are owned by ranchers or farmers who have less than 10 head. These types of farmers, ranchers, or livestock managers simply do not have the income or technical inclination to implement an expensive and complex system, forcing the smaller operations to go out of business or non-compliance.
To date, though, there have been relatively few tracking systems that are NAIS compliant. In particular, these systems add other functionality unnecessary for NAIS compliance and, thus, are extremely expensive, costing hundreds or thousands of dollars. The high costs of these NAIS compliant systems makes them preclusive for smaller farmers, ranchers, or livestock managers, who may only have a few animals.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and/or system which is inexpensive and allows small, as well as large, farmers, ranchers, or livestock managers to comply with NAIS regulations.